Maywood has 1st homicide in a year when man shot on birthday

June 26, 2010

The Village of Maywood had its first homicide in over a year Friday night when a man was gunned down in the near west suburb on his 24th birthday.

Maywood police responded to a call of gunfire in the area of the 600 block of Legion Street about 10:30 p.m. Friday. Upon their arrival, officers found a vehicle leaving the area at a high rate of speed.

Officers followed the vehicle to the Loyola University Hospital emergency room, where Jajuan N. Jenkins was brought after being wounded in the shooting, police said.

Jenkins, who the Cook County medical examiner's office said lives in the 7100 block of 16th Street in Berwyn, was pronounced dead at 10:54 p.m. at the hospital. A spokesman for the medical examiner's office said Friday was his 24th birthday.

Police said he died from a gunshot wound through the right side of his body; the bullet ended up hitting his heart.

Police said that a 19-year-old woman was also shot during the incident.

It is believed the shooting may have stemmed from some kind of dispute among a group of people near Legion and 7th Avenue -- down the block from where the shooting occurred -- before shots rang out, police added.

No one was in custody.

"We work hard every day to make our community safe just like every other community," Maywood Police Chief Tim Curry said in a statement this morning. "Before this incident, the Village of Maywood experienced 375 days-plus of not having any murders.

"This is an unfortunate event but as we all know, these things do happen. I am confident that this is an isolated case and peace will be immediately restored to our community."

Maywood's last homicide occurred June 14, 2009, when Johnathan Ollech, 18, of Forest Park, was shot once in the chest in a sport-utility vehicle. Two men have been charged in the crime.

Illinois State Police and Maywood statistics show that a dozen people were homicide victims in Maywood in 2008, five in 2007 and 11 the year before that. Ollech's death was the second homicide of 2009.

That day, Curry, a 25-year veteran of the police force who said he spends 60 percent of his time on the street, gave credit to a simple measure he emphasized since becoming chief: Police officers target loiterers.

"Loitering is usually the root of hanging out discussing the crime they're about to commit," Curry has said. "It also makes the people who are loitering potential victims."

Anyone with information about the latest shooting should call Maywood police at 708-450-4472.